Car Facts

The cars used in F1 championships are quite different
from usual cars. Just go through these interesting facts on these cars
and you will know how different both the versions are.

Approximate 80,000 components come together to make an F1 car.
The cars have to be assembled with cent per cent accuracy. If it
were assembled 99.9% correctly, it would go on the track with 80
components wrongly placed.

F1 car engines complete their life in about two hours of racing.
Just compare this with normal engines which go on serving us
faithfully for decent 20 years.

When an F1 driver puts brakes on his car he experiences huge
retardation or deceleration. It could be compared to a regular car
driving through a brick wall at the speed of 300kmph.

An F1 engine usually revs up to 18000 rpm. This means that the
piston travels up and down 300 times a second. Road car engines rev
up to 6000 rpm at max.

The brake discs in an F1 car have to withstand the operating
temperature of approximately 1000 degrees Centigrade. They are made
of carbon fibre which is much harder than steel and has a higher
melting point.

The cars have more than a kilometer of cable linked to about 100
sensors and actuators which monitor and control the car.

An F1 car can accelerate from 0 to 160 kph and decelerate back to
0 in just four seconds.

An F1 car weighs around 550 kg.

Gear cogs or ratios are replaced after each race for they have to
resist high degrees of stress.

Gear levers are located on the back of the wheel. The clutch
levers are located below the gear paddles.

Most racing cars have their tyres filled with nitrogen. The
reason being nitrogen has a more consistent pressure compared to
normal air.

Road car tyres can last 60 000 to 100 000 km. On the other hand,
racing tyres are designed to last only 90 to 120 km.

The tyres lose weight during the race. In a GP each tyre loses
about 0.5kg in weight due to wear.

The cars can be refueled at 12 liters per second. The rig used
would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average road car.